The word ‘selfie’ hadn’t even been invented a few short years ago however the concept of capturing one’s own image pre-dates photography. Painters were mad for a self-portrait, when not busy fulfilling commissions for the wealthy who wanted their own visages captured on canvas.
Seems we’ve always been exhibitionists, regardless of the technology we use to express this, which is what stand up comedian Hannah Gadsby explores in her latest show, The Exhibitionist. As a comedian, she’s required to stand still long enough for a photographer to take a new poster image each year but it’s not a process she enjoys terribly much, as she tells the hundreds coming to see her each night during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Known for her self-deprecating wit, she’s got the evidence up there on a big screen, scrolling through her least favourite images of herself. She’s been back home, too, and raided the family photo albums plus she asked her online followers to supply some of their own selfies, and then she has a brilliant mash-up of celebrity pictures to conclude the show. But what The Exhibitionist really focuses on is art.
“I wanted to talk about art but I’ve got to appeal to a broader audience so I need to lower them in gently so I had to use my own photos. Using selfies, it’s a very accessible way of introducing art,” Gadsby tells Beat on the phone from her home in Melbourne.
Gadsby has a degree in art history and curatorship although never worked in galleries. “God no!” she exclaims. “I just had a degree. I’m not right for that world, am I?” she deadpans. Combining that education with her comedy, though, has seen Gadsby carve out quite the niche for herself. Her NGV Art Lecture Series have sold out the past five years running. “I’m just doing greatest hits this year so they’re just fun, I’m bringing out all the old classics,” she says of the three lectures she’s performing this festival, with the final one, Mary Contrary, taking place this Easter Saturday.
Until then, though, she’s performing nightly in The Exhibitionist. Last year’s show, Happiness Is A Bedside Table, earned her a Barry Award nomination and her previous shows have often involved revealing, and sometimes heartbreaking, stories. While this year’s show still contains personal material, it’s told with a much lighter touch, which was a deliberate move, she says. “I just want to make people laugh from woe to go and have a good time, and I want to have a good time. I’m sick of revealing myself for a bit,” she says, adding that she just wanted to make a really funny show.
“I get tired you know, it’s me, it’s putting myself out there, it’s private so you can’t keep doing that year in and year out. Every year you have to write a show so I want to keep interested, and if I keep revealing myself that will become stale and that will just be what I do and that’s very limiting as an artist,” she says.
It’s working. “People are laughing so that’s all the feedback a comedian needs, people are coming and then laughing, so that’s great,” she says.
BY JOANNE BROOKFIELD
Venue: Melbourne Town Hall – Supper Room, Cnr Swanston & Collins St, CBD
Dates: Currently playing until April 20
Times: 7pm (Sunday 6pm)
Tickets: $28-$37.50
